Bill Gates wants unlimited H1b visas.?

Question

He says that America should be able to attract the best of the world to come and work and even stay here. Is this ethical?? Is it ok to entice the people who would best change things in other parts of the world- to come here? Is the dream of US hegemony that complete??

ryan cw, skinfreak - very interesting responses. Thanks!

Answer 1

There is an issue there, definitely. Some of the EU countries are trying programs to set it up so they will go back, bringing their skills back etc. We want the business here, and our schools are failing our own kids, so we need people. However, population and demographics being what they are, the only hope for some other countries is for advancement within their own country. That means that brain drain can be a concern.

To someone above, Bill Gates does put his money into training our own people. However, he is reaching those a bit younger.

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/UnitedStates/Education/TransformingHighSchools/Schools/ModelSchools/HTH.htm

I don't inow the answer to this one. However, I do believe that if those skills didn't give people a chance to immigrate, those people would largely train differently.

Answer 2

Yes, I think its ethical. To begin with, if these people have a shot at a better life here, then they should be provided with the opportunity, rather than being deprived of choice. Second, I don't think Bill Gates gives a darn about American hegemony, he is more interested in Microsoft hegemony, as he should be. Finally, this is what is often referred to as a Malthusian solution...if a country is unable to keep its best and brightest, the solution may be for those people to leave, which means the country will eventually experience enough intellectual drainage that it will fall behind and be forced to change, in order to keep up. It is a little sad, but the world can be a hard difficult place, and forcing people to stay someplace they want to leave for the benefit of a country that may not support them in return is certainly less ethical than allowing free choice among the people involved.

Answer 3

Bill Gates would rather hire some Indian guy at a fraction of the salary he'd have to pay you and work this Indian 50 hours a week.

Another example of corporate greed and their addiction to cheap labor.

By doing this, it puts Americans out of work.

By the way, the Indians have a PAC called Immigrationvoice.com that's working 24/7 to steal your tech job from you.

Answer 4

Sure he does - that equates to cheap labor. Not only cheap in that you can pay less for them, but also that you don't have to spend money training Americans to do the job.

If Bill was willing to, he could make a huge change in this country by employing people with intelligence but no paper qualifications, and training them into the jobs that are needed in this country. But he won't do that, because there is no monetary advantage in doing so.

Answer 5

Again it's for cheap labor in most instances. I've known too many who have had their technical jobs outsourced for cheap labor. What is going to encourage an American to even get an education when the added expense of the education still doesn't equal a living wage? Most people get an education to make more money not less.

It also may be that our education system has fallen so far behind we aren't close anymore to the rest of the world. I know the younger kids can run rings around me on the technology front. But way too many wouldn't be able to balance their checking accounts if they didn't have a calculator.

What angers me is if cheap is the name of the game and we're a global community....it seems like as Americans we are still getting the short end of the stick. They are getting cheaper labor by either bringing in cheap labor or going abroad....but we aren't seeing any savings. We are still having our prices go up, our pay go down, taxes go up.....we're still funding other countries with our tax dollars, we're still expected to pay more to compensate for those who can't pay. They quality of goods is way down yet I'm paying more for it. You used to get what you paid for and it was reasonable. Now it's not.

I just don't see where we are benefitting at all. I saw a special in China where people were able to pay their expenses and still be able to put 55% of their income in savings. Our basic expenses take every dime and then some with 2 workers. Forget savings! I'm not talking about the wealthy here.....just average citizens.

My parents were raised in the depression. I know more about cutting back and seperating wants and needs. I don't know that many ways to "cut back" on things I have no control over when my options are limited. So it seems the only one benefiting from this is the wealthy. It's more money in their pocket and we're left holding the bag. I mean in this society.....you're expected to have certain things just to function. You can't walk down to the electric company and talk to someone anymore. You have to have a phone or computer to do basic things. Schools require these things. Or your job requires them. It's not enough to treat yourself to a TV.....here you can't get anything in except Spanish channels if you don't have cable. Sending things by mail has gotten to be prehistoric since there's faxes etc. All those things cost money. Heck....you can't go to some parks or go on a beach where you don't have to pay something for it. 5 bucks for popcorn at the theatre? 3 bucks for a coke? I mean come-on. Can't bring your own. So people rent movies. But you have to buy a DVD player and a TV for what used to be a simple date or a cheap night out. Wants have become needs in this society and you can't really function without them. They have made it a champaigne lifestyle and are expecting us to afford it on a beer budget. I'm just trying to get by. Like a whole lot of others and they've changed the rules to the game mid-stream and haven't given me a new copy of the rules.

Answer 6

The truth is the enrollment of US citizens in Science & maths is dwindling day by day where as India & china do the quite opposite. Maths and science are mandatory courses for most parents. In fact parents force kids to take those courses in school. In one way they are actually ignoring the childs interest but they are playing the safe game of having a job when he/she grows up. Imagine a kid going into painting or some art and gets no where. Esp in a country like India/china those arts are not valued a lot like they are in the US. India with 2nd largest population only manages to get one bronze (if at all) in the olympics. Why?? Because there are no NFL,NBA aka pro sports which lure them and make them feel that they can become big one day. I am not saying that we are entirely dedicated to sports but the number on the science and math side is going downhill. Bill Gates as a business person does every thing he needs to to keep his shareholders happy. Do I need to yell out which country citizens are his majority shareholders? I have posted the below in another answer and I am adding some more. I feel that these facts might help quell the H1b myths

No worker irrespective of nationality will work for lower wages unless there is a reason. The reason here is H1B is screwed up and it is employer centric. The employer holds the employee captive for years as long as the employee's Green card is pending.

1) How many of you know that people cannot change employers when GC is pending? For that matter cannot get promoted! damn

2) How many of you know that it takes approx 6-10 yrs for an Indian, 4-7 yrs for chineese to get a GC?

3) How many of you know that most of the H1B's are swallowed by body shops who in turn send them to Gates shop? Gates can hire them if the visas are available but the body shops who can resort to all sort of practices run out the visas in 4 weeks. Gates can hire only as per his need. He cannot hire some one and not pay which body shops do.

4) Check how many of the students in grad school are Indian and chineese. Who pays the out of state tuition in universities?

5) You cannot build a school system and people with skill set that needs the demands of business night over night. It takes 2 or 3 decades. How many of the kids today like science and maths?

6) India and China have human capital rich of maths and science . Do you know that 90% of the Indians have Maths and science as mandatory subjects in High school?

7) Its not Bill Gates. Its the system. Dont become another Lou Dubious Dobbs who buys stock from every company that outsources, lives on 100 acre farm in North Bergen county and does the same rhetoric about middle class to keep his ratings up

8) H1b holders pay federal, state, SS & Medicare taxes even though there is no assurance of using SS. Some folks are under the impression that they do not pay taxes. Thats wrong. For them to evade SS &Medicare US should have a totalization agreement with their native country. India doesnt have a SS system at all and hence no totalization agreement.

9) Do you know that the H1b system was started some what 20 years ago and body shops have found all possible ways to suck the juice out of it? Congress hasnt even done any thing while countries like Canada,UK and Australia clearly value the educated and has points system.

10) Do you know that there in no per country limitation for H1b's but there is a 7% limit per country in Employment based immigration system? That means India sends 35-40K people on h1b every year and only 9800 (7% out of 140K) are eligible for greencard. so per year 25K indians only are getting into the green card queue which makes them bonded labors to these bodyshops.

Welcome to Employment basesd immigration and world of capitalism.

Answer 7

1 - Ok...

2 - Ethical? Yes, darlin', it is "ethical".

3 - Yawn (growing bored by the low level of sophistication here) - yes, once again, it is "ok".

4 - Now you've lost me, honey. You've jumped from H1b visas to "US hegemony" (I would say you've conflated the two but then I'd REALLY lose you) and it just doesn't make any sense.

Best of luck to you and remember to take your medications on time!

Answer 8

It is cheaper labor for Bill, but we are outsourcing to India anyway, have you realize that lots customer service calls had been answered by Indian accents. If those ppl come here, at least they will spend money here....

Answer 9

As long as there are top notch programmers out of work here, I say screw you Bill Gates. Not the first time I ever said that and it won't be the last.

Answer 10

I think he aught to get involved in the New Bedford issue.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AnEyjTjCSHox00kqDC2WunDsy6IX?qid=20070308092829AA2RnGl
edit::
IMHO BG simply wants cheap help. There are many qualified Software Engineers here. Probably the folks who helped him, by making his albatrosses popular. Hire them. Bring in a whole under class of slave engineers. Nope.